Solution To Darwin's Dilemma Of 1859

A solution to the puzzle which has come to be known as ‘Darwin’s
Dilemma’ has been uncovered by scientists at the University of Oxford,
in a paper to be published in the Journal of the Geological Society.

‘To the question of why we do not find rich fossiliferous deposits
belonging to these…periods prior to the Cambrian system, I can give no
satisfactory answer’.

These words, written by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species in
1859, summarise what has come to be known as ‘Darwin’s Dilemma’ – the
lack of fossils in sediment from the Precambrian (c. 4500 – 542 Mya). If
Darwin’s theory of natural selection was right, life evolved gradually
over millions of years. However, the Cambrian period, which began around
542 million years ago, seemed to herald a sudden rapid increase in
species diversity, an event which has come to be known as the ‘Cambrian
explosion’.

Darwin could find no evidence for fossils prior to the Cambrian, and
the mystery has continued to perplex palaeontologists. The study,
carried out by Richard H. T. Ballow and Martin D. Brasier at the
Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, focused on a
rock formation from Shropshire, England, known as the Longmyndian
Supergroup. These rocks had been examined in Darwin’s time by the
geologist J. W. Salter, who suspected them of containing records of
Precambrian life, but he was unable to identify anything beyond ‘trace
fossils’: unusual markings which may have been left behind by organisms.

The study used Salter’s collection as well as fresh samples from the
Longmyndian Supergroup, and identified microscopic fossils of
exceptional preservation. The fossils represent a wide array of
microbial life from the Ediacaran period, the period immediately
preceding the Cambrian (630 – 542 Mya). They were preserved in a number
of ways. Some had been compressed under layers of sediment until they
formed a thin film of carbon residue on the surface of the rock. Others
were preserved in three dimensions and are thought to have undergone
permineralisation, a process where water containing minerals seeps into
the spaces within an organism and evaporates, leaving behind mineral
deposits which build up into a hard fossil. Some had also been preserved
as impressions and moulds within layers of sediment, appearing as sharp
ridges on bedding planes, or as their equivalent negative impressions.

It is not clear how the microbes kept themselves alive. As they lived
in shallow marine environments, they may have survived either by
converting light into energy in a similar way to plants, or by
converting organic substances into energy as animals and humans do.
Suggestions as to what organisms they might be related to include algae,
fungi or a wide variety of other filamentous bacteria.

Darwin himself was confident that fossils from the Precambrian would
eventually be found, believing it to be a time when ‘the world swarmed
with living creatures’. Although the importance of the Longmyndian
supergroup in solving the dilemma has been recognised since Darwin first
identified the puzzle, it is only now, with more sophisticated
techniques for examining specimens, that the secrets of the Longmyndian
rocks and their exceptionally preserved fossils can be uncovered.